² This was a period during which one of the major controversies among Indianists was whether or not the whole devotional movement in Indian religion was the result of Christian influence; some scholars went so far as to attempt to establish the name “Kṛṣṇsna” as a cognate form of “Christ” (one Bengali form of “Kṛṣṇa” is “Krṣṭo”). See the articles by Keith, Kennedy, et al., in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1907–1910. There was a similar controversy in regard to Buddhism, based upon a hypothetical relationship of birth stories, temptation stories, certain forms of ritual, etc., in Buddhism and Christianity. I think that it is now generally accepted that this was a kind of wishful thinking on the part of ardent Christians and that, as Basham points out in his introductory notes to the Buddhist “Lost Son” parable from the Saddharmapuṇḍanka “probably we have a case here of religious minds of two widely separated cultures, thinking along similar lines, as a result of similar, though not identical, religious experience.” Sources of Indian Tradition, compiled by T. deBary, S. Hay, R. Weiler, and A. Yarrow. (Columbia University Press, 1958), p. 165.

³ Saunders in the International Review of Missions, 1914, p. 149; quoted in Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, The Philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore (London, 1918), p. 5.

⁴ Urquhart, “The Philosophical Inheritance of Rabindranath Tagore,” in the International Journal of Ethics, April 1916, p. 398; quoted by Radhakrishnan, pp. 5–6.

⁵ Edward J. Thompson in the Quarterly Review, October 1914, p. 330; quoted by Radhakrishnan, p. 6.

⁶ However, I think that it is a mistake to characterize these poet-saints by the use of the term “folk poets” in its usual sense. They were not infrequently literate and sometimes learned men.

Just as it is usual to conceive of Indian philosophy as beginning and ending with what Edward J. Thompson calls “the towering Vedanta,” so it is usual to think of Indian literature as beginning and ending in the great Sanskrit drama, epic, and kāvya. Until recent times, literature written in the vernacular or regional languages has been an object almost of scorn, among both Indians and Westerners. The poets of the people, the poets of the great bhakti (devotional) movement which swept across India from the 14th to the 18th centuries, wrote in the language of the people, and the imagery which they used was the imagery of everyday life. They required from those who listened to their songs none of the highly sophisticated convention and tradition which it is necessary to bring to the high Sanskrit literature for proper understanding. I think that it is this quality of directness which allows the songs of the poet-saints, and the songs of Rabindranath, to reach us across cultural barriers which in many other ways seem insurmountable.

⁷ Although, as will be seen, there is a certain amount of historical vagueness connected with the sect, there are some grounds for thinking of the Bāuls as originating in medieval Bengal. See Sukumār Sen, Bāṅgālā sāhityer itihāsa (Calcutta, 1948), I, 396. Hereafter cited as Sen, Bāṅgālā.

⁸ Rabindranath Tagore, trans. Songs of Kabir (New York, 1916).

⁹ Pramathanāth Biśī, Rabāndrakābya prabāha (Calcutta, B.S. 1363–65; A.D. 1956–58), II, 90.

¹⁰ Sen, Bāṅgālā, p. 992.

¹¹ Rabindranath Tagore, Religion of Man (New York, 1931), pp. 110–111.

¹² Foreword to Hārāmaṇi, quoted by Dasgupta, Obscure Religious Cults, p. 214.

¹³ Rabīndranāth Thākur, Gorā (Calcutta, B.S., 1316; A.D. 1910), p. 1. The song is a song of the Bāul Lālan Phakir; it is quoted in full by Sen, Bāṅgālā, p. 993. Dr. Sen adds that this song “had the effect of a diksa-mantra (i.e., an initiatory mantra or formula) on the mind of the young Rabīndranāth.” The song is translated in full in the text below.

¹⁴ See Rabīndra-racanābalī XI (Calcutta, B.S. 1349; A.D. 1943), 316. Although this is not to my knowledge an authentic Bāul song, its similarity to the Baul songs in imagery and feeling will be seen.

¹⁵ For the details of the relationship between Rabīndranāth and Lālan, see Sen., Bāṅgālā, pp. 992 ff., and Upendranāth Bhaṭṭācārya, Bāṅglār bāul o bāul gān, (Calcutta, B.S. 1364; A. D. 1957–58), part II (Bāṅglār bāul gān), pp. 1–13. Hereafter cited as Bhaṭṭācārya, Bāul gān. Bhaṭṭācārya mentions that the present-day followers of Lālan claim that Rabīndranāth's greatness as a poet is due to the influence which Lālan had upon him. This might be going a little far, but it is certain that there was a great deal of mutual respect. Lālan is one of the few Bāuls about whom anything biographical is known, and it might be instructive to review briefly the facts of his life. What follows is based upon Bhaṭṭācārya's account and upon that of Mansur Uddīn, Hārāmaṇi (Calcutta, 1942), pp. 176 ff.

Lālan Phakir was born in Nadiyā district of West Bengal, in a village called Bhāṛā. The date of his birth is not certain, but in B.S. 1297 (A.D. 1891) a local fortnightly paper printed a notice of his death, together with the statement that he was 116 years old when he died. If this is accurate, he was born in A.D. 1775. Legends seem to be generally agreed that he was born a Hindu of Kāyastha caste. Some, however, say that his surname was Kara, others that it was Dās or Rāy.

It is not known whether or not he was illiterate. According to Bhaṭṭācārya, this question is still debated among his followers. It is clear from his songs, however, that he knew well such texts as the Rāmāyaṇa, Mahābhārata, and the purāṇas, as well as the Kuran and other Muslim texts. He composed orally.

Lālan was married very young. In his youth, he set off on a pilgrimage. Some say that he was bound for Purī, others that he was bound for Navadvīp. Some say that he went with his mother, others that he had many companions. But all the legends agree that at some point during his travel he was taken ill with smallpox and left for dead. A Muslim Fakir named Sirāj found him, took him home, and nursed him back to health. The disease, however, had taken one of his eyes. Sirāj and his wife being childless, they adopted the youth, and Sirāj taught to him the doctrines of the Sufis, the Muslim mystics. Most sources seem to agree that Sirāj and his wife had no permanent residence, that they wandered over many parts of India, taking the boy with them.

After some years, Lalan returned to his native village. But he had lived with a Muslim family and had taken food with them, and the people of the village, including his wife, refused to take him back. He returned to the house of Sirāj. After the death of Sirāj he set up his household on the outskirts of a leper colony called Seuṛiyā or Cheuṛiyā in Birāhimpur parganā, which was within the zamindari of the Tagore family. There were in the district many Muslim jolās (weavers—die caste to which Kabīr belonged). Lālan married a jolā widow, and his house slowly became the focus of a sect which grew up around him. The Bāul group of which Lālan is considered the ādi-guru is still strong in that district.

¹⁶ Dasgupta feels that the term bāul can be derived in any of three ways: from the Sanskrit vātula (“infected with the wind disease”—i.e., “mad”), from the Sanskrit vyākula (“confused, disordered,” or as Dasgupta says, “impatiently eager”), or from the Arabic awliyā (“… the plural of wali, a word originally meaning ‘near,’ which is used for ‘friend’ or ‘devotee,’ that refers to a class of perfect men”). Sec his Obscure Religious Cults, pp. 183–185. The derivations from vātula and vyākula seem to me unquestionable and equally valid. The phonetic changes are regular. In Māgadhi and most dialects of Eastern Hindi a word-medial Sanskrit intervocalic consonant is lost. Thus vātula would become vāula and vyākula would become vyāula and ultimately, by a rule of regular phonetic change in Bengali, vāula. Secondly, frequently in Eastern Hindi and consistently in Bengali the Sanskrit v is b, as Sanskrit vāc (word), Bengali bāeana (act of speaking or reciting). The term bāur occurs early in Eastern Hindi (e.g., in the songs of the 14th-15th century Maithili poet Vidyāpati) with the same meaning. Thirdly, Hindi -r- is frequently -l- in Bengali (Hindi rukhi, Bengali lukhi, “dry bread”). Some discussion of the possible semantic changes involved will be made below. As for Dasgupta's third derivation, that from the Arabic, there seems to me little reason to go so far afield when the more likely derivation from the Sanskrit is so close at hand.

¹⁷ For example Uddīn, Hārāmaṇi, song no. 43, shows abundant use of Sūfī terminology.

¹⁸ Sec Uddīn Hārāmaṇi, pp. 16–19. Among various illustrations is the occurence of the term tripināle, which in the technical Sahajiyā or Tantric sense indicates the place in the body where the three major nerves meet; the “unknown bird” of the Baul songs is often described as dwelling in a cage made up of eight sticks, obviously the eight members of the Tantric circle, etc.

¹⁹ For example, this song of Lālan Phakir:

O Gaura [i.e., Caitanya], what law is this which you have brought to Nadiyā? This cannot be an earthly being's work....

²⁰ Uddīn, Hārāmaṇi, p. 26.

²¹ A song of Lālan Phakir; Bhaṭṭācārya, Bāul gān, song no. 102.

²² A song of Lālan Phakir; Bhaṭṭācārya, Bāul gān, song no. 63.

²³ A song of Madana Bāul, quoted in Rabīndranāth's Bāṅglā kāvya paricaya (Calcutta, B.S. 1345; A.D. 1939), p. 70. Murśid is the Islamic guru; tasabi and mālā are the Muslim and Hindu varieties of prayer beads, respectively. There are many Bāul songs of this type, some of them most delightful. The following one, published in the journal Prābasī in B.S. 1322 (A.D. 1917), Vol. XV, is a song of the Bāul Āli Khān Munśi of Noakhāli district in East Bengal:

Some say that praying to Hari instead of Kālī is an error. Some say that praying to Kali instead of Hari is an error. I have thought constantly upon these things, and have gone mad.... I used to make a great show, bathing three times a day in the Ganges, reciting many mantras (mystic formulae); I used to perform yogic exercises all the time, and all I got was out of breath. I used to fast day after day, and the only fruit was a pain in my belly...

This is very close in spirit to Kabīr and the other poets of the bhakti movement. F. E. Keay, in his Kabir and his Followers, (Calcutta, 1931), p. 74, quota this song of Kabīr from Bijak, śabda 113:

Devotion, sacrifice and rosary, piety, pilgrimage, fasting and alms, the nine bhakfis, the Vedas, the Book (i.e., the Quran), all these are cloaks of falsehood....

See also Yusuf Husain, L'Inde mystique (Paris, 1929), pp. 70 ff., and Tagore, Kabir, songs LXXXI, XLII, etc.

²⁴ Rabindranath Tagore Gitanjali (New York, 1930), song no. 11 (Written in English). Hereafter cited as Gitanjali (English).

²⁵ Tagore, The Religion of Man, p. 111.

²⁶ A Bāul song says:

Reverse are the modes and manners of the man who is a real appreciator of the true emotional life, and who is a lover of true love; none is sure about the how and when of his behavior.

Such a man is affected neither by the weal nor by the woe of the world.... Awkwardly wild are his manners and customs... he is as much satisfied with mud as with sandal-paste. (Dasgupta's translation in Obscure Religious Cults, p. 186).

²⁷ Ksitimohan Sen, Medieval Mysticism of India, trans. Manomohan Ghosh (London, 1929), p. 209.

²⁸ See, for example, Rabīndranāth Thākur, Gītabitān (Calcutta, B.S. 1348; A.D. 1942). I. 80, 260, etc. Hereafter cited as Gitabitān.

²⁹ Gitabitān, I, 258, no. 26.

³⁰ Rabindranath Tagore, Fruit-gathering (New York, 1916), song no. XVI.

³¹ 31 song of Lālan Phakir; Bhaṭṭācārya, Bāul gān, song no. 16.

³² Gītāñjali (Bengali), in Rabīndra racanābalī, Vol. XI, song no. 37. Rabīndranāth frequently phrases this loneliness in terms of the separation of a woman from her husband or lover. Such a separation is more poignant in the rainy season. In song no. 16 in Gītāñjali (Bengali), he writes:

If you do not show yourself to me, how can I pass this rainy season? My eyes wander always toward the distance, and... my heart wanders wailing in the restless wind.

The prototype of such an image is the longing of Rādhā for Kṛṣṇa in the Vaiṣṇava mythology and poetry. A Vaiṣṇava lyric ascribed to Vidyāpati, Baiṣṇaba-padabālī, ed. Khagendranāth Mitra et al. (Calcutta, 1952), p. 91, pada 7, reads:

O my friend, my sorrow has no end. The rains have come, but my house is empty. The seething clouds swirl ceaselessly, and the earth is filled with rain. But my husband (kānta) is far away. My body is pierced with the bitter arrows of Kāma (the god of love). The lightning flickers restlessly... Vidyāpati says, (O Rādhā,) how will you pass this night without your Hari (Kṛṣṇa)?

³³ A song of Padmalocana, from Rabīndranāth's Bāṅglā kāvya paricaya, p. 72.

³⁴ A song of Bāul Gaṅgarām, from Bāṅglā kāvya paricaya, p. 69.

³⁵ Gītabitān, I, 221, no. 561.

³⁶ Tagore, Fruit-gathering, no. VII.

³⁷ Gītāñjali (Bengali), no. 36.

³⁸ Tagore, The Gardener (New York, 1914), no. 5.

³⁹ A song of Gagana Harakara, from Rabīndranāth's collection, published in Prabāsī, XV (B.S. 1322; A. D. 1917) p. 154.

⁴⁰ A song of Lālan Phakir, in Sen, Bāṅgālā, I, 993. Cf. Prabāsī, p. 640.

⁴¹ 41 song of Lālan Phakir, in Sen, Bāṅgālā, I, 994.

⁴² Gītabitān, vol. I, no. 47.

⁴³ Gītabitān, II, 218, no. 555.

⁴⁴ Gītāñjali (Bengali), no. 23.

⁴⁵ Tagore, Sadhana (New York, 1913), p. 36.

⁴⁶ Sadhana, p. 41.

⁴⁷ A song of Lālan Phakir, in Sen, Bāṅgālā, I, 993.

⁴⁸ A song of Lālan Phakir, in Sen, Bāṅgālā, I, 994.

⁴⁹ A song of Gagana Harakara, in Prabāsī, p. 154.

⁵⁰ A song of Lālan Phakir, in Bhaṭṭācārya, Bāul gān, no. 32.

⁵¹ Acalāyatan, in Rabīndra racanābalī, XI, 344.

⁵² Acalāyatan, p. 358.

⁵³ Gitanjali (English), no. 12.

⁵⁴ Gitanjali (English), no. 20.

⁵⁵ Gītabitān, I, 216.

⁵⁶ Anonymous Bāul song, in Prabāsī, p. 154.

⁵⁷ Gītabitān, vol. I, p. 218, no. 554.

⁵⁸ Tagore, fruit-gathering, no. I.

⁵⁹ Anonymous Bāul song, from the writer's collection.

⁶⁰ Gitanjali (English), no. 33.

⁶¹ 61 song of Nīlakaṇṭha Bāul, from the writer's collection.

⁶² A song of Kāṅgālī Bāul, in Prabāsi, p. 640.

⁶³ A song of Nīlakaṇṭha, Bāul, from the writer's collection.

⁶⁴ A song of Lālan Phakir, in Uddīn, Hārāmaṇi, p. 21, song no. 30.

⁶⁵ Gītāñjali (Bengali), no. 24.

⁶⁶ Tagore, Fruit-gathering, song no. LXXIV.

⁶⁷ A song of Lālan Phakir; Bhaṭṭācārya, Bāul gān, no. 63.

⁶⁸ Gitanjali (English), no. 29.

⁶⁹ Tagore, Fruit-gathering, song no. II.

⁷⁰ Gītabitān, vol. I, no. 41.

⁷¹ Gītāli (in Rabīndra racanābalī, vol. II), no. 40.

⁷² A song of Lālan Phakir, in Bhaṭṭācārya, Bāul gān, no. 12.

⁷³ Anonymous Bāul song, in Sen, Bāṅgālā, I, 994.

⁷⁴ A song of Madana Bāul, in Bāṅglā kāvya paricaya, p. 71.

⁷⁵ A song of Bhabā Bāul, from the writer's collection.

⁷⁶ Gītāñjali (Bengali), no. 33.

⁷⁷ Gītimālya, quoted by Sen, Bāṅgālā sāhityer itihāsa, I, 995.

⁷⁸ A song of Lālan Phakir, in Bhaṭṭācārya, Bāul gān, no. 12.

⁷⁹ A song of Lālan Phakir, in Bhaṭṭācrāya, Bāul gān, no. 2.

⁸⁰ A song of Lālan Phakir, in Bhaṭṭācārya, Bāul gān, no. 11.

⁸¹ Gītāñjali (Bengali), no. 29.

⁸² A song of Bāul Gaṅgarām, in Bāṅglā kāvya paricaya, p. 68. This image of the river of life or the river of time is not confined to Bengali poetry. See for example the poem of Matthew Arnold, The future:

A wanderer is man from his birth.

He was born in a ship

On the breast of the river of Time.... And the width of the waters, the hush Of the grey expanse where he floats, Freshening its current and spotted with foam As it draws to the Ocean, may strike Peace to the soul of the man on its breast—As the pale waste widens around him —As the banks fade dimme r away, As the stars come out, and the night-wind Brings up the stream Murmurs and scents of the infinite sea.

I am grateful to my friend Dr. Eric Solomon of Ohio State University for calling my attention to this poem.

⁸³ Gitanjali (English), no. 64.

⁸⁴ A song of Lālan Phakir, in Prabāsī, p. 193.

⁸⁵ A song of Lālan Phakir, in Bhaṭṭācārya, Bāul gān, no. 11.

⁸⁶ 86 Fruit-gathering, song no. XLII.

⁸⁷ Gitanjali (English), no. 21.

⁸⁸ Gītāñjali (Bengali), no. 140.

⁸⁹ A song of Jāgā Kaibarta, in Bāṅglā kāvya paricaya, p. 68. This image is very common in medieval poetry in India. See for example Dādū, śabda 81.

⁹⁰ A song of Lālan Phakir, in Bhaṭṭācārya, Bāul gān, no. 2.

⁹¹ A song of Lālan Phakir, in Bhaṭṭācārya, Bāul gān, no. 20.

⁹² A song of Lālan Phakir, in Bhaṭṭācārya, Bāul gān, no. 70.

⁹³ Gītāñjali (Bengali), no. 140.

⁹⁴ Gītāli, no. 66.

⁹⁵ Tagore, Fruit-gathering, song no. XLI.

⁹⁶ Gītābitān, vol. I, p. 89, no. 199.

⁹⁷ A song of Īśān Yugi, in Bāṅglā kāvya paricaya, p. 66.

⁹⁸ Gitanjali (English), no. I.

⁹⁹ Gitanjali (English), no. 16.

¹⁰⁰ P. C. Bagchi, Bāuler dharma, quoted in Uddīn, Hārāmaṇi, p. 10.

¹⁰¹ Gitanjali (English), no. 71.

¹⁰² Gitanjali (English), no. 72.

¹⁰³ Gitanjali (English), no. 73.

¹⁰⁴ Radhakrishnan The Philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore, p. 67.